Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. Medical properties of the water and mode of use? diseases in which beneficial?baths. I. THE NATURAL WATER. From the foregoing description, it is to be observed, that the Ilkeston water may, with propriety, be classed with the acidulous saline springs of the continent; approaching most nearly the constitution of the water of Seltzer near Frankfort. Its impregnation of the carbonated alkali, by which it has acquired the title of an alkaline water, in conjunction with its other ingredients, endows it with qualities for the alleviation of disease, not frequently met with in the productions of nature. This water is medicinally used both internally and externally; and as might be anticipated, from its chemical composition, its therapeutical properties are found by experience to be antacid, tonic, alterative, and aperient. 1. INTERNAL USE. In numerous chronic diseases, where the tone of the stomach is impaired, the quality of the blood vitiated, or the various secretious imperfectly performed, the natural water is a valuable remedy. The dose is from half a pint to a pint twice, or three times a day; and in order to receive full benefit from its use, this course should be continued for at least a month. Thus administered, it is found very useful in scrofula, indigestion, various affections of the liver, gravel, gout, and many kinds of eruptions of the skin. The concentrated water is a mild, and active antacid aperient; and in cases where it is advisable to stimulate the action of torpid, or disordered bowels, to keep them free from acidity, and crude matters, or to excite, or improve the secretion of bile, this concentrated water is very convenient. The salts obtained by evaporating the water, have properties similar to those of the concentrated …
